Electronics off when the door is closed, but FA uses e-reader
 

We're all familiar with the rule that once the doors close electronics must be turned off. Agree/disagree, it's the rule we need to follow.

Today flight 3496 CMH-IAD the FA closed the door and walked through the cabin as usual and told people to power down. After she was done, she sat in the jump seat and pulled out an e-reader and sat there and read while we pushed back and de-iced which took almost 45 minutes. Once we headed for the runway, she put it away. Just seemed a case of do as I say not as I do.

I didn't want to risk the ire of the FA but I would have like to be able to read my Kindle or work on my PC while we waited as well. I wasn't up for a discussion with her if she called me out (2F on a 170) if I fired up my equipment. So I dozed off.

Just thought I'd share my experience.

Ugh... I'm with you Ron. I'll admit, when I saw the title of the thread, I was steeling myself to read yet another boring "Why can't I use my cellphone, I'm important, don't they know it's safe" DYKWIA style rant...

But that's not what you're saying. That's lousy customer-facing interaction, and I'll even concede it's probably not malicious. It's just poor training or self-awareness.

United used to have a Customer Service VP with a Disney background. They could really use her back.

Well, remember pilots are authorized to use iPads now. Consider that there's a little bit of entitlement creep that the captain himself may propogate.

Glad I didn't meet your expectations in that area. Like you said, I am sure it is not malicious and who knows, maybe the training is different since it was a UAX flight not mainline.

Consistency as a whole is lacking with the UA customer experience. I've called the 1K line 4 times in the last three days and have had a different greeting each time. Again, nothing major, but points to an inconsistent user experience.

We all know the issue here. It's a silly out-dated rule, but it's too expensive / difficult to change it, so the rule remains. But everyone knows it's silly.

So, the FA does follows his / her training and makes everyone power down, following the letter of the rule, but then ignores the letter of the rule and follows only its intent. A well-run airline would have anticipated this problem and trained for it in advance. An adequately run airline would issue an informal reprimand and beef up its training. A badly run airline would ignore it.

I hope UAInsider follows up with the OP and tries to obtain details so that UA can pursue the matter further.

UAX RJ145 last Spring (I don't recall the operating carrier). I was in 12A. A uniformed off-duty flight crew riding in 12B-C played games on a smartphone from before pushback until landing.

The plane didn't crash and we arrived at IAH on time.

Isn't the FAA proposing to allow tablets and e-readers be left on during taxi & takeoff now?

The FAA is proposing that other than for work reasons, electronics shouls be not used by pilots in flight. Not due to their electronics disruption, but due to distractions from concentrating on the job at hand. http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/15/travel...ics/index.html

I agree with the poor optics of the situation, but let's also acknowledge that the reason you have to shut them off "when the door closes" is so they can walk around and do their safety checks and tell you to turn off any devices you may be using. They sometimes do allow you to use them again if there will be a long tarmac delay but then would redo the check.

Now if she had continued to use the e-reader on takeoff that would have been a different story.

They haven't proposed anything yet. The FAA has formed a government-industry group to study the current PED policies and procedures aircraft operators use to determine when these devices can be used safely during flight.

I'm not normally one to make predictions but I think that it is likely that e-ink e-readers will be allowed at all times and a lessor chance that this may include all tablets. In all cases, airplane mode would be required. I don't expect the rules for notebook computers or cell-phones to change though phones in airplane mode would likely be treated the same as tablets in airplane mode.

Emphasis mine. Is this circular reasoning yours or your belief that the airlines + the FAA has?

Not sure what you mean. My point is that they tell you to turn them off when the door closes. Then they walk around and make sure that you've actually done so - since many people ignore their order they have to double check and tell the ones who haven't complied to do so.

I had a flight recently where the FA was texting on his smartphone for all of taxi and through wheels-up after take-off. I'll take that as a safety issue NOT because of the electronic device. That is, however, the one time that I'd like an FA to be completely alert and paying attention to safety.

This scene cracks me up:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZ7KgesktnU

On a USX (Air Wisconsin) CR2 last winter. Pushed back and then we were smacked with an ATC ground stop from our destination. Captain came on the PA with an estimated wheels up time and went on to say "since were going to be here for 45 minutes or so, why don't you go ahead and pull those Kindles and iPads back out and keep yourselves occupied. Ill give you a heads up when they need to be stowed again for takeoff".